->''"Good morning USA,''\\''I've got a feeling that it's gonna be a wonderful day!''\\''The sun in the sky has a smile on his face''\\''And he's shining a salute to the American race!''\\''Oh boy it's swell to say,''\\''Good morning USA!"''-->-- '''Stan Smith''' singing the show's theme song.

'''''American Dad!''''' is the second cartoon sitcom from the creator of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', Creator/SethMacFarlane, along with Matt Weitzman and Mike Barker. A pillory of American ultra conservatism played out on RupertMurdoch's [[{{Fox}} network]], it follows the daily life of [[CharacterDevelopment initially-paranoid]] and extremely patriotic CIA agent Stan Smith, his over-protective wife Francine, nerdish teenage son Steve, and liberal and rebellious teenage daughter Hayley. The pilot episode explains that, on a mission, Stan uncovered a runaway talking alien named Roger, who lives in the family's attic for protection from getting turned in to the federal agency, until he adapted more to the outside world and became more outgoing through the use of various disguises later in the series. They also have a talking German goldfish named Klaus, who used to be a human.

Early in its run, ''American Dad!'' was viewed as a clone of ''Family Guy'', but it quickly outgrew this reputation and developed its own identity. It has accomplished this largely by emphasizing story and character development and not including most of ''Family Guy'''s trademark shticks, like the {{cutaway gag}}s, {{flashback twist}}s, {{big lipped alligator moment}}s, {{overly long gag}}s, and its excessive use of {{take that}}s (though the occasional one does occur), making it a show that has alienated dedicated fans of ''Family Guy''. Initially, the show relied on caricatures of political personalities, as well as some of the more visible and controversial aspects of the right wing's policies and ideologies (although granted, usually the [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]] version of said policies). Over time, however, as the characters' personalities began to be fleshed out, the show became less and less political in nature, to the point where only a small portion of the episodes featured politics as an active theme (curiously, as this was taking place, ''Family Guy'' was steadily becoming ''more'' political).

The show began to [[GrowingTheBeard grow its beard]] in the two-part episode "Stan of Arabia" midway through the first season. Since then the plots have become more eccentric and arguably more entertaining as a result. The show has shown a willingness to experiment with unconventional storytelling techniques, such as "Star Trek", in which Steve's brief success as a children's author is told in the style of a 1940s FilmNoir story, and "Of Ice and Men", which is related as a ''[[Film/ThePrincessBride Princess Bride]]''-style bedtime story told by a years older (and now human) Klaus to his young grandson. The quality varies wildly from episode to episode, but the risks the writers take often lead to stories laced with snappy dialogue and strong performances from the voice actors.

Because of low ratings and FOX's plans to revert the Sunday night line-up from "Animation Domination" to "Sunday Funday"[[note]]which includes ''BobsBurgers'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''BrooklynNineNine'', ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', and ''Mulaney'' -- and, in 2015, the Mark Hentamenn-created animated series ''Bordertown''[[/note]], ''AmericanDad'' has been canceled on FOX (but not before airing three leftover season 10 episodes as a separate mini-season on September 14th and September 21st 2014). Viewers need not despair, however, as Creator/{{TBS}} has picked up the show for a 15-episode 11th season (and has been renewed for a twelfth season), which premiered on October 20th, 2014.